Fractaque
by boasamishipper
Summary: It only takes one little thing to ruin a relationship. Tenzin finds this out the hard way. Linzin. Written for Round 7 of the Probending Circuit.


a/n: this is my submission for the seventh round of the probending circuit. have some feels.

Prompt: Both persons end up losing something or another as a result of this fight.

Key words: Anger (emotion).

Word count: 1214.

Characters: Tenzin, Lin.

Pairing: Linzin.

* * *

Tenzin couldn't remember the last time he'd had a conversation with Lin that didn't end up turning into a fight. They fought over whose turn it was to take out the garbage. They fought about what to have for dinner. They fought about the best way to hang up washing. Once, under the influence of a lot of alcohol, they had fought over the proper way to pronounce the word egg.

But that was just a part of them. Fighting and good-natured teasing was as common in their relationship as hugging and kissing were to other couples. Tenzin hated having to explain to people that no, his girlfriend of many years was not abusive, and frankly, it wasn't any of their business. He didn't care what his and Lin's relationship looked like to people that didn't know them.

He'd never really been mad at her, per say. Even throughout their constant, constant arguing, he always made sure to reaffirm that he loved her and wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Being calm in the face of a storm was part his pacifist Air Nomad nature—it was in his father's nature too, even Bumi's, dare he say it.

So when Lin returned one day from work later than usual and he'd asked where she'd gone, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary that she said something akin to, "It isn't any of your concern where I go all hours of the day, Airhead." But this time, she didn't say it with a smirk on her face or the telltale sparkle in her eyes—she looked worn out and dejected and overall _sad_. After Tenzin gave her a closer look, he noticed that Lin was startlingly pale and her lips were nearly purple. Lin Beifong had never been weak but at that moment she looked ready to fall apart.

"Lin," he asked slowly, "what happened?"

"Nothing," she growled, and pushed past him into the bedroom. "I don't want to talk right now."

An uncharacteristic bubble of anger blossomed in his stomach and he grabbed her shoulder, whirling her around. "Lin, please, tell me what's the matter. You never come home late except when you're on a case and I know that you aren't on one right now, and now you look—well, you don't look like yourself. You look like you're sick."

Lin scoffed. "Gee, Tenzin, I forgot that I had to inform you of all of my whereabouts every second of the day. Sorry if I worried you but I'm here now and it still isn't any of your business where I was."

"None of my—Lin, we've been together for over ten years—"

"I didn't realize that we weren't boyfriend and girlfriend but rather bodyguard and policewoman!"

"Lin, you aren't making sense, please," he wasn't stupid, he could tell that she was angry—no, pissed off—now at him, but he had to know why she was so late coming home, "please just tell me why you were late!"

"I was in the hospital!"

And at that moment, everything went silent save for the sound of Tenzin's gasp of surprise. "Why?" he croaked, unsure if he actually wanted to hear the answer to his query. Judging how Lin's eyes are bright with tears, he realized that he didn't.

But Lin spoke anyway. "I," and for the first time in years Lin's voice quivered like a plucked violin string, "had a miscarriage."

Something delicate inside him fell off a high edge and shattered. "You—why didn't you—oh, Lin, Spirits—you should've told me, Lin, I would've been there for you—"

"It wasn't any of your concern, Tenzin." Spirits, her voice was so monotone and flat that he almost didn't recognize who was standing before him. "I didn't know I was pregnant until I started bleeding this afternoon and Saikhan took me to the hospital. There was nothing to do or be done. It was already dead when it—" She nearly choked on her own words. "When it came out of me." She sat down on the couch, Tenzin only a second behind her. He reached to take her hand in his but she pulled away from him. "I'm infertile, Tenzin. It's not my fate to become a mother."

He didn't know how to react to that because this was the most heart-on-her-sleeve thing that Lin had said to him in years. "There…there has to be something we can do, right?" He hated how his voice cracked like he was going through puberty all over again. "We can take you to my mother, maybe she can do something—"

"Tenzin, what part of 'I'm infertile' don't you understand?" Lin snapped. "I can't have children. The doctors and healers tried fixing me. I had to sit for hours in that hospital room while they ran numerous tests and I know it hurts, but you're going to have to get used to the fact that not only am I not mother material, I also can't have children. I cannot conceive. It isn't my fate to become a mother—"

"But it's _my_ fate to become a father!" Tenzin knew he was shouting at Lin but he didn't care, anger and pity and sorrow were raging inside him like a storm. "My current self-worth is balancing on my ability to produce offspring and—" He immediately cut himself off, realizing with a snap just how selfish and cruel he sounded.

Lin's face was solid stone. Her lips were thin and set into a permanent-looking frown. "Is that all I am to you, Tenzin?" In contrast to how abrasive and curt she looked, her voice was soft. "Do you only love me because I might give you children someday and carry on your race?"

The distance between them was nearly unbearable. They were only three inches apart now, glaring down their noses at each other, and yet Tenzin wouldn't be surprised to find that there was actually an ocean, perhaps even an entire world, separating them.

He didn't say anything. He couldn't.

She scoffed suddenly. "Well, let me tell you something, Tenzin." He almost wished that she would start yelling at him, anything would be better than this new quiet Lin. "You and I aren't going to be saving the airbender race tonight, or any other night."

"Lin." His throat was dry and he clasped his hands together in a pleading position. "Lin, I didn't mean it."

"Get out."

He swallowed, standing up and making toward the door. In times like these it was always better to do what Lin told him to do. But once his hand was on the doorknob, he turned back. "Lin, please, I—"

"Get the hell out of my sight," she spat. "I never want to see you again."

Tenzin and Lin always fought. They always made up, too.

But Tenzin knew that this mistake was something that he couldn't fix.


End file.
